A Ride on Horseback
by LZClotho
Summary: prompt response: Regina teaches Emma to ride a horse. A series of ficlets all rated M for Swan Queen sex. Added a second ficlet on 8/6.
1. A Ride on Horseback

_Prompt response: Regina teaches Emma to ride a horse. Rated M for Swan Queen sex. _

_Thanks to Laura D for giving this a once-over!_

**A Ride on Horseback**  
by LZClotho

"I am never going to figure this out," Emma picked herself up from the ground for the hundredth time, dusting off her leathers and staring up into the face of the bay horse sniffing around her hips. The horse master at the royal stables said he had given her the most docile horse available to ride. Turning, she realized she could only just see the turret tops of White Castle.

Refusing to be embarrassed in front of either her son or her parents, Emma had taken to daily rides alone. She'd finally managed well enough to take a horse at a walking pace outside the bailey walls, gripping the prominent war pommel white-knuckled, but she'd done it. She had been trying to learn to steady her balance and increase the horse's speed.

But it had been almost a month and she was no closer to staying astride for more than a few steps than she had been the first day when James, her father, hoisted her up in the saddle, promising she would take to it "like a native."

She wasn't a native, far from it. Emma felt more and more disconnected from this world without running water or electricity every day that passed. What she wouldn't give for a simple scooter!

She wrestled with the stirrup and managed to get her foot into it before the horse sidestepped, and she fell with a thump onto her back. Her booted foot remained caught in the stirrup. She groaned and started to reach to loose herself.

"Having difficulties, Miss Swan?"

From her position on the ground, Emma's gaze snapped over her shoulder as she pushed up onto her elbows. She was staring upside down at a leather-clad Regina Mills astride a gorgeous and big black stallion. Black gloved hands negligently held the reins across the horse's withers. She could see the stallion's breaths puffing his nostrils wide and his sides were heaving slightly. The woman's riding boot was knee high and snugly fit to her calf. From there, Emma traced up a leather-clad leg and took in the woman's riding outfit. She wore a mix of red and black leather which accentuated each curve to perfection and the elegant hat atop her black hair, which she still wore in the short familiar style of her Storybrooke days, with its crimson feather made the cream color of her skin even more apparent. Brown eyes and the inquisitive twitch upward of a dark brow captured Emma's gaze.

As casually as possible, Emma asked, "What brings you by?" While talking, she managed to separate her boot from the stirrup and stagger to her feet. Even from this new vantage she could see the former queen sat her horse with ease.

Regina waved a gloved hand. "Just taking in the beauty of the morning," she said, her tone casual, her gaze studying Emma with what could only be called lazy interest.

Emma boldly stepped up to the black horse, laying a hand on its withers, near but not touching gloved hands nor reins, as she looked up to meet dark brown eyes. "Is that so?"

Regina's deeply red lips quirked. Not quite a smile, but Emma hadn't really tried to cause one. Yet.

"You seem rather far from home, princess," Regina said.

"Needed some space," Emma replied. She wasn't about to tell this woman that the whole reason she was determined to learn to ride, and do so alone was so that she could set out to find out what Regina had done with herself since the Oz-like cyclone had swept them all back here. No one else in White Castle cared, and Emma had worried when days, then weeks, passed, and Regina had not been reported seen or heard from by any of the forest scouts.

"Well, then I shall leave you to your solitude." Regina lifted her hand and gave the slightest twitch to her wrist. Under her expert guidance the horse stepped away from Emma and began to turn back in the direction from which Regina had come.

"Regina!" Emma called toward the woman's back. The horse stopped, but neither it nor its rider turned. Emma took a breath. Gently she added, "Henry's all right."

There was a tiny twitch of the horse's tail. Emma looked up. Maybe she imagined it, but Regina's back looked a little stiffer.

"He misses you."

The horse's right rear foot shifted on the ground. But Regina still did not turn.

Emma's gaze traced up the regally straight back. "I... Are you all right?"

"The Blue Fairy has seen fit to erect wards around my land, protecting me in ways she did not when I was last here," Regina stated, her voice devoid of any emotion that Emma could discern.

"Wards? Does that mean you can't get down off your horse here?"

Regina turned and her face registered absurdity. "You really have no idea how anything works here, do you?"

"Everyone expects I already know!" Emma retorted.

Regina turned her horse around once again then dismounted, dropping with easy balance to her boots on the grass. Holding the reins in one hand, she closed the distance to stand before Emma, who looked at her with a plea plain in her gaze.

"I could teach you to ride," Regina said.

"Why?"

"Because the challenge intrigues me."

"I'm a challenge to you?"

"You always were, dear."

The deadpan delivery made Emma laugh. Regina simply stood quietly. "All right. Fine. So, where do I start?"

"Let me help you mount."

"You gonna throw me over the back so I land on my head on the other side?"

"Are you willing to take the chance?" Regina held her gaze.

Emma desperately wanted to learn to ride. Henry had taken to the skill like he was born to it. Emma was seriously feeling out of her element. Just maybe conquering this basic skill would settle some of her other issues.

But to trust Regina?

Searching her feelings, Emma knew that she did. She hadn't wanted to look for Regina just for Henry's sake, but for her own. She'd missed her. She always felt they had been on the brink of... something in Storybrooke, but circumstances being what they were...

She had come out here seeking Regina and, piecing together the evidence, she realized Regina had been coming out to find her, having spurred her horse when Emma fell. Maybe they did both want the same thing.

She felt the corners of her lips tilt up as she searched the dark brown gaze. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

"All right." Regina moved alongside her stallion's withers looking toward his hindquarters and cupped her hands, interlacing her fingers. "Grab the pommel and put your outside foot here."

Emma knew this part. However as she started to launch herself, Regina unlaced her hands, causing Emma to nose forward almost slamming face first into the saddle. "Hey!"

"No. Don't kick off the ground. Pull yourself up with your arms. You'll have more control."

Emma nodded. "All right. Let me try again."

This time she found herself at waist height leaning over the saddle with Regina leveraging her left foot. "Once your hips are clear," Regina instructed, "slide your right leg over the saddle." Emma felt the pull in her thighs and the strain on her shoulders, but in another moment she was sitting astride Regina's stallion, holding the pommel.

Regina grasped the reins, a fistful of mane, and the back curve of the saddle before lifting and settling herself in a single smooth motion behind Emma.

Emma felt Regina's thighs press against the backs of her legs and the cradle of the brunette's hips slide firmly against her rear. "Hey, I thought you were going to teach me to ride?"

"I am teaching you." Regina adjusted her seating. Their intimate proximity caused Emma's hips to cant forward, under her back, aligning her spine. "Riding is all about balance. Find yours by finding the horse's center of balance and going with it, not fighting it."

"Well, it's all well and good right now. We haven't started moving," Emma countered, still gripping the pommel tightly.

"We'll get to that. Let go of the pommel. Take the reins." Regina's arms lifted around Emma, bringing the reins near Emma's hands. The move felt surprisingly like a reassuring hug.

Emma turned her head, catching Regina's eye over her shoulder. The brunette gave a small nod. Emma looked down as she lifted her hands from the pommel and moved them quickly to the reins, shifting over Regina's gloved hands.

The woman's breath slid across her ear, causing a shiver down Emma's spine as she adjusted their mutual hold so that Emma's hands were inside, on the reins, and Regina's were outside, simply cupping the backs of Emma's hands. The black leather was soft and warm and the reins felt rough against her palms. "There you go," Regina said, her breath once again whispering across the nape of Emma's neck.

"Now what?" Emma asked.

"Eyes front, look between the horse's ears. Gently turn your right wrist outward. See his right ear twitch?" Regina added as she felt Emma's hand do as instructed.

"Yeah."

"Now, relax that hand, and twitch the left outward."

"His left ear twitched."

"There you go, you're communicating. With a well-trained horse there is no need to yank them around," Regina said. "Using gentle motions should be more than enough, and that includes your legs."

Regina put her feet to the outside of Emma's causing her legs to align with the blonde's. "To move directly forward, squeeze with equal pressure slowly with your thighs." She demonstrated, pushing Emma's thighs with her own.

_God the woman's legs were strong_, Emma thought. The horse started walking. This part she understood.

But Regina wasn't done. Emma's back had slid out of alignment. Releasing one of Emma's hands, the former queen splayed her palm across Emma's abdomen over the thin linen of her shirt. The touch startled Emma, but the firm hand shoved Emma easily back into the cradle of Regina's pelvis, until she felt the woman's breasts against her back and the heat of her belly against her rear. "Keep yourself tucked in, Miss Swan."

Hot moist air moving against her ear, warm body at her back, the motion of the horse between her thighs, and Regina's hand still spread wide against her stomach all conspired to make Emma breathless. "Got it."

"Now, let's move the lesson along, shall we?" Regina said. "Guide Volare left." Emma gave a twist of her left hand. The horse immediately responded, its left shoulder dipping as it stepped into the turning motion. She felt the sensation of its center of balance shifting and stiffened up, afraid to fall. Regina's palm in her stomach moved slightly, completely distracting Emma and suddenly she felt she was no longer sliding off. "Feel how the shift changed the position of your hips? Don't stiffen against it. Let it happen."

Regina directed Emma to twitch her right hand. The horse stepped into a right turn. Again Regina's arm and palm across her abdomen kept Emma in place. Back and forth they turned and walked. Emma began to feel each shift of the horse's balance and resist her inclination to stiffen. The sensation began to feel a bit like swinging, as though she wasn't so much riding as gliding over the ground. A smile curved her lips.

She felt something gently brush against her nape only to realize it was Regina's mouth. The brunette woman had just kissed her neck! Her pulse sped up. She started to move her right hand off the reins to cup Regina's against her waist.

The motion caused a tug on the reins and the horse made an unexpected right turn. Regina's hand left Emma's stomach and one hand grasped her thigh while the other caught the reins. "Hold," she said firmly and her legs slipped under Emma's, lessening the pressure exerted on the horse's sides.

"Sorry," Emma said.

Leaning into Emma's back, Regina returned her hand to Emma's stomach, setting off the butterflies again. "Nothing to apologize for," she murmured into Emma's hair. "Unless my... touch is unwelcome?"

Caught in a haze of sensation, Emma shook her head. "It's not."

Regina's lips returned to Emma's nape, slipping up to Emma's ear. "I'm very glad to hear that." Her splayed palm circled on Emma's stomach and Emma realized the tail of her shirt was pulling free of her pants.

"Shouldn't we... get down?" Emma murmured; Regina's mouth was nibbling at the soft skin of her ear, making speech, much less thought, more difficult.

"Relax. I won't let you fall," Regina murmured. Her fingers slipped beneath Emma's now loosened shirt, warm leather soothing against bare skin for the first time.

While she was talking, Regina had continued the soft circulations with her fingers, causing delicious tremors up and down Emma's spine which resonated deep into her sex. The blond head tilted back, resting against Regina's shoulder. "Oh god," she breathed.

The horse had begun moving again; the gliding motion was quickly back, and Regina's hand slipped slowly under the waistband of Emma's riding pants. A leather-covered finger slid through the hair covering Emma's mound and she sighed at the sensation, receiving a kiss to the underside of her jaw.

Quickly the leather-tipped finger became moist as it spread lower lips and slipped inside intimate folds. The friction from the motion quickly brought Emma to the edge. With the heel of Regina's hand rocking against her clit and one finger curling inside on each stroke, she could feel the crest of her orgasm building higher and higher just out of reach. She moaned, turning her head and kissing Regina's throat. Her kisses moved to Regina's chin as the brunette dropped her chin before meeting Emma's mouth in an open kiss. One finger became two, and Emma breathed her moans onto Regina's tongue.

The horse's motion changed underneath Emma, and she felt the wind increase its cool touches against her face. Regina's fingers within her matched the gliding motion. Without warning Emma's orgasm crested, crashing through her and sending undulating waves outward from where Regina stroked to each of her limbs and up through her chest where they vibrated from her throat in a series of increasing cries, all timed to Regina's strokes.

All motion gradually slowed, and Emma's cries diminished to soft moans. She lifted her arm and dazedly found the back of Regina's head, pulling the woman's mouth to hers for a deep kiss that left them both gasping for breath upon release.

She rested her forehead against Regina's cheek as she felt Regina's fingertips slowly withdrawing.

"Oh my god," Emma breathed. "Can I do that to you?"

Regina's chuckle was deep, vibrating in her chest behind Emma's shoulder blades. "Maybe after a few more lessons, princess."


	2. Ride Away With Me

****_**Author Note:** Many of my readers requested a follow up to "A Ride on Horseback," more "lessons" as it were. Inspiration struck. So, this time it's Regina's point of view, for Emma and Regina's second meeting in the hills just beyond White land. This one ended up with a tad more plot than the first one._

_**Disclaimers:** Rated M for sex. Regina/Emma_

**A Ride on Horseback 2: Ride Away With Me**

"You kept your seat for an entire league today, princess."

The blond head shot up from its preoccupation so quickly that the bay horse beneath sidestepped. Hands unused to the task nevertheless relaxed on the reins, thighs loosened, and the sidestepping stopped.

Regina bit her lip to arrest the smile trying to appear on her lips in response to the triumphant grin which broke across the flushed face of Emma Swan as the woman kept to her saddle.

A tingling arose in Regina's hands and at her fingers' flexing Volare, her ebony stallion, stamped the ground with a front leg. She spared not a glance to quieting her stallion, doing so automatically, while her gaze preferred to drink in every nuance of the princess.

Emma wore the clothes of this world, though she had not gone so far as the feminine gowns and unmarried woman's veil prescribed to her birthright as the daughter of White kingdom. Instead, as when last they met, Emma wore a light cotton tunic, snug at each wrist, lacing open at her throat, and shirt tail tucked into tanned leather trousers. Regina envied the tailor who must make the trousers fit snugly to the woman's firm curves. These were not the woman's skinny jeans of the other world, but they flattered her making Regina breathless with want as her heart quickened.

"Regina, you startled me," Emma said, green eyes flickering over Regina's face.

"Did you not expect to find me, princess?" Regina returned the considering look, noting the woman's heightened flush and the quickened pulse thrumming in her neck. Her voice dropped an octave as she bore her gaze into Emma's and dared to seek the truth. "Did you not venture forth specifically to seek me?"

Emma's wrist moved and the bay stepped alongside Regina's horse. The two horses' tails flicked at one another, as they stood nose to tail. Regina only had eyes for the gaze meeting hers. She felt the weight of a hand press against her thigh.

"You know I did." The blonde's lips moved around her words, but Regina almost did not hear them over the blood roaring in her ears.

_God, but it has been three days_. For two days the world had bathed in rain, but Regina still ventured from the relative safety of her home in exile to hide in a copse of trees from which she could survey the valley stretching to White castle. Yesterday the sun had risen gloriously bright, so Regina had thought _today certainly_. From within her copse she waited restlessly as daybreak became mid-morning and later. At the strike of the midday bells in the village church tower, she had to concede that Emma would not be coming.

Regina had turned Volare's head and ordered him to frenetic speeds, trying to escape the bubble of pain expanding in her chest. Horse and rider had raced nearly the entire route home. Jumping fallen trees and ducking low branches, she fought to keep the bubble from bursting loose with the tears lodged in her throat and behind her eyes. When Volare splashed through the edge of the lake, she flung herself from his back and lay panting on the grass until hunger pains drove her home as the sun fell in the western sky.

Seeing the blonde now, feeling the touch of her green gaze all along her body, Regina had to know she was not the only one suffering from the length of their separation. She had to hear what Emma wanted. But she could not find it in herself to beg for the acknowledgment. She covered Emma's hand on her thigh and lifted it, feeling the loss of its heat even through her black leathers.

"You still wear no gloves," Regina scolded.

Emma turned her hand and instead closed it around Regina's. "And you never take yours off." Regina knew it to be an admonition in Emma's own way. But she could not allow herself to be vulnerable, not here.

"Not here," she whispered.

"Where then?"

Regina felt her face flush. "Follow me." A turn of her wrist and the press of a thigh eased Volare away from Emma's mount. Emma released her hand, but the reluctance evident as their fingers took long seconds to finally part caused a flutter in Regina's chest.

She glanced over her shoulder to watch Emma guide her bay into step behind Volare. The woman had learned her seat well from Regina's brief tutelage, keeping her back straight and hips gliding with the horse's motion.

Then Emma surprised her. She guided her bay wide. Regina caught the motion out of the corner of her eye, thinking the young woman on the verge of endangering herself. Instead Emma grasped the pommel with one hand and increased the pressure of her knees on the bay's flanks, pushing him into a jarring trot for several steps. When she was alongside Regina, she released the pressure and the bay settled back into a walk. Not pretty, but it had worked. Regina smiled.

Emma's bay and Regina's black walked stride for stride together through the forest. Emma reached her hand across the separation, palm toward the sky and invitation clear.

Regina placed her gloved hand into Emma's. Emma's fingertip circled on the exposed skin of Regina's wrist, sending heat deep along her arm to lodge in her chest. She looked to Emma's face and saw in the sunlight dancing in green eyes that Emma knew exactly what she was doing.

The warmth in her chest began to pool lower. The urge to run, but this time for the joy in her heart, pressed on Regina. "Care to run a bit, princess?"

Emma's jaw flexed, but her hands remained still on the reins. "All right."

"The trees will break shortly for a span ahead. The ground is level and we can give our horses their heads," Regina advised. "To maintain your seat, keep your heels down which will keep your legs snug without unintended pressure." Emma nodded. "If you're moving too fast, a brief pull on the reins will slow your mount. Do not saw at his mouth."

"I'm ready," Emma said, and Regina heard the bravado masking the uncertainty.

"I'll demonstrate first. Watch my hands and legs. Then I'll come back for you."

The treeline ended and a flat unbroken plain lay spread out before them. Regina conveyed through her hands and thighs for Volare to increase from a walk to the smooth gait of a canter. Within a few steps she was gliding over the ground, the wind slipping its cool fingers through her hair. Her desires eased off a bit as she felt the power of her stallion beneath her. More in control of her physical reaction to Emma, Regina returned to the blonde.

"Ready?"

Emma's bay sidestepped conveying Emma's nerves though she stated, "Ready."

"I'll be right alongside," Regina promised.

She watched as Emma issued the commands through her hands and thighs. Horse and rider began at a walk, but within just two strides, Regina saw Emma's knees tighten and the grip on the reins shift. The bay's strides lengthened and he was cantering. Emma did not sit as easily and her gloveless knuckles were white.

Too late Regina realized Emma's horse had taken the bit in his teeth and shifted from canter to gallop and then a wild run as Emma struggled to hold her seat. Emma's loose seat obviously scared him and he started turning toward White castle, heading down into the valley terrain. The blonde and the bay were a dozen horse lengths away and continuing to increase the separation.

Grasping Volare's reins in her left hand, Regina urged the black into a gallop, eating up the ground with his monstrous strides. Soon she reached for the bay's reins with her right hand. Emma clung to the side of the saddle. She grabbed Regina's arm and then her body when close enough.

"Let go of the saddle," Regina instructed firmly.

"Regina!" Emma loosened her legs from around the bay's saddle.

"Come here," Regina murmured. And if her heart was racing with fear, she studiously ignored it. Letting go of the bay's reins she wrapped her arm around Emma's back, pulling the woman onto Volare's back atop her own thighs. She hugged Emma to her with one arm as she guided Volare to a stop with the other. A glance ahead found the bay already slowing and turning back.

Emma threw her arms around Regina's neck; Regina snugly held the blonde to her, willing her heart to cease its hammering. She felt Emma's thundering as well. For both their sakes, she didn't release Emma to drop to the ground. "Throw a leg over," Regina said.

Instead of turning forward, Emma maintained her hold on Regina and placed her booted foot atop Regina's backward on the stirrup. With that bit of leverage she bent her inside knee and pulled it over to the other side, straddling Regina's thighs as she found her center of balance between the stallion's shoulders.

Finally Emma leaned back, shifting her hands to the leather at Regina's waist. "Thank you for catching me."

"You're welcome," Regina replied. She nodded toward the bay walking toward them. "Do you want to get back on your own horse?"

"I like this view." Emma's voice was teasing, light, and her lips curved in an unreserved smile.

"So do I," Regina replied throatily, already caught in the rising tide of arousal. Watching green eyes sparkle with flashes of sunlight, Regina canted her head. Emma grasped her waist more tightly and leaned into Regina's body, claiming her lips in an open mouthed kiss.

Delighting in the heat and moisture and taste of the blonde, Regina moaned. Emma's hands roamed, sliding up into Regina's hair causing tingles down her spine, then stroking the pulse in her throat. Finally, when they parted to breathe, Emma's fingertips caressed her lips.

"I just noticed something," Emma whispered, and Regina was enraptured watching Emma's mouth move as she spoke. How often had she been this close to those lips as they argued in Storybrooke and not tasted them? She must have been insane.

"What?" Regina asked, barely managing to vocalize the sound.

"Your riding outfit buttons up the front." Regina chuckled as Emma's touch firmed at several points, slipping each button from its hole.

Emma leaned back to increase the room for her fingers and Regina bowed her head, bringing her lips to Emma's exposed throat to taste the skin rich with the woman's natural scent. "Such a quick study, princess," she murmured, lips vibrating against flesh.

Her riding coat parted under Emma's fingers, revealing the white linen covering her breasts and held snugly to her curves with a soft leather bustier laced sternum to navel. When Emma's fingertips pressed to her rapidly heating skin Regina tipped back her head, lost in swirling depths of sensation. Emma didn't bother with loosening the ties, instead pulling down the linen to feast.

Gasping, Regina's hand tightened on Volare's reins, unable to keep focused on controlling the horse as her body shuddered with delight caused by Emma's mouth on her body. The stallion sidestepped, then shifted his weight to start walking forward. Releasing the reins, Regina wrapped both arms around Emma as she felt herself losing her seat. The blonde relaxed into the contact, in surprising trust that the brunette wouldn't let her get hurt.

Regina fulfilled that trust, softening their landing with a mere thought, creating a cushion of air beneath them. Still the ground was solid when they stopped what with Emma landing atop Regina.

Lifting herself away, Emma was chuckling. "You all right?" she asked.

"Fine." Regina rose to her elbows, coat gaping. "You?"

"You wanna get back on?" Emma asked, reaching out and stroking a bared nipple. Regina fell back, feeling stalked by the hunger sparkling in green eyes.

"Later." Regina growled and grabbed Emma, pulling her down into the grass with her. Mouths crashed together in a heady and playful duel for dominance. Pushing Emma up, Regina pulled the blonde's blouse free of her trousers and drank her fill of creamy skin, stroking at the tight abs of the fit young woman, as the blonde stripped the top off over her head.

Emma caught one of Regina's hands from her waist and teethed at the leather tips of the fingers with a smile. She gave a tug and lifted a brow asking silently for permission. Regina gave it with a dip of her chin. Bit by bit, and only using her teeth, Emma relieved Regina of first one glove, then the other.

Then she placed the bared hands back on her stomach. Regina needed no coaxing, feeling now the unblocked warmth and satin of the skin of Emma's belly. She made feather-light strokes up to the handfuls of breasts, trapping taut nipples between her fingertips only to smooth away, down to the waistband of Emma's trousers, and in a powerful grasp, she encircled the woman's waist, kneading with her hands and gripping the muscles of Emma's back.

Regina's world filled with the fall of golden hair when Emma fell forward and plied lips, teeth, and now hands, to bare Regina to the waist. Her coat and bustier became their protection from the damp ground. Her linen was pushed to her waist. She cupped the blonde head to her chest with one hand and stroked the warm muscles of Emma's back with the other as each of their thighs rocked into one another's centers.

She marveled as the swelling of her center continued, and yet Emma's touch did not leave her chest, nor did their pants come off. Sensation swamped Regina and with a cry torn from her throat, she felt her fulfillment soak her underthings. Pressed as she was to Emma she also felt the moment the blonde woman peaked, long limbs shaking, forehead falling against Regina's shoulder, wet eyes pressing into the swell of Regina's breast, kisses pressing repeatedly near her nipple.

She pressed her own tear-damp face into Emma's hair, leaving kisses on the top of her head as she held on with all she had within her of happiness.

* * *

The midday sun warmed their sweaty skin. Butterflies fluttered above their grassy haven. Emma drew fanciful patterns with a fingertip on Regina's bare back as they spooned together. Both woman still wore their riding pants, Emma her trousers and Regina her leathers.

"Should you be getting home?" Regina asked. She didn't want Emma to leave, but knew if the White princess went missing for very long, Snow and James would immediately suspect her hand in it. _Although_, she thought with a chuckle as she stroked the back of Emma's arm wrapped around her chest, _probably not in this way_.

"Where's home?" Emma asked against the bare skin of Regina's shoulder, the vibration more than the sound conveying her question.

Regina tensed. Was Emma saying what she thought she was saying? "Are you unhappy?"

"Here? Now? No. But..." Emma trailed off.

Regina turned onto her back and looked up into Emma's face. She waited in silence for the blonde to find the words to express herself, their bare fingers interlaced on her belly.

"Nothing here feels right. I still wake up every morning and wish..." Emma's voice trailed off and she shook her head as if to silence her thoughts.

Regina curled her fingers around Emma's wrist, drawing her attention. "What do you wish for, princess?"

"People who don't call me princess." Emma sat up, wrapping an arm around her upraised knee.

Regina sat up, stroking the now stiff line of Emma's back. "All right."

"You can't be happy here, trapped within your wards and all. Regina, run away with me?" Regina didn't know what to say, and Emma was apparently so anxious she didn't wait for a reply. "I know. I know. It's insane. Even if I could run, there's no way back."

Regina's heart stuttered. "You want to go back to Storybrooke?" _You want to leave?_ her mind cried out.

"I don't fit in here. I wasn't cut out to be royalty. I can't sit on my hands and look pretty all day. There, even though I lived close to the edge, I made my own way. Here... what am I good for? People bow and curtsy and think I'm something special."

"You are," Regina said. "And you can make being royalty anything you want it to mean."

"I feel so...!" Giving off a roar of displeasure, Emma frantically put on her shirt and leaped to her feet.

Regina forewent her bustier, only pulling on her riding coat over her linen top and followed. "Don't change yourself. Make them understand who _you_ are now."

"They can't make up their minds. Am I a child to be coddled, or the Savior, untouchable?"

Wrapping her arms around Emma's waist from behind, Regina nuzzled the golden throat leaving it with a soft kiss. "Definitely a lover to be coddled," she teased softly.

Emma turned in her embrace. Her green eyes showed her distress but then shaded with purpose. "If I hadn't been the Savior and you hadn't been the Evil Queen... Could we have ever just been Emma and Regina and shared Henry?"

Regina tucked a falling golden lock of hair behind a delicate ear. She thought about the moment she'd first met Emma Swan on her front steps in Storybrooke. The young woman had appeared earnest and embarrassed that Henry had found her. If she hadn't been the Evil Queen, paranoid and in the middle of losing her son's love, could their relationship have been different?

Here she was no longer the evil queen. She was no longer really anything, and yet this woman had sought her out. Not once, but twice. Simply to be with her.

"I think maybe we could," she finally answered the question, "Emma."


	3. Note

Thanks for all the follows, favorites, and reviews!

You have reached the end of the "Ride on Horseback" one shots. To continue the adventure of this Regina and Emma, please read my follow up story which actually takes them on a real honest-to-goodness plotted adventure. It's titled "Taking the Reins."

~ LZClotho


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